Georgetown’s Winter Restaurant Week, Through Jan. 23
By • January 18, 2022 0 1715
Restaurant Week meal-deals perk up the post-holiday season for Georgetown diners. This winter, January 17–23, the focus is on $40- and $55-dinner menus that highlight each restaurant’s specialties. An impressive roster of the community’s top dining rooms has adapted this 30-year-old “institution” to the challenges of an ever-changing scene – offering takeout and outdoor seating, as well as Covid precautions at inside tables.
Veteran restaurateur Ashok Bajaj describes Restaurant Week’s evolution from a promotion designed to entice diners to a “new” (to them) venue by offering a bargain menu to a social phenomenon. Pre-Covid, Restaurant Week became an annual outing for groups of friends. This year’s promotions hope to attract small parties of diners who have been “meaning to try” a restaurant, as well as enticing regulars to dine outside their homes. The lure is “value-priced,” three-course menus. Here are some of the exciting options for Restaurant Week (RW):
Annabelle – Master chef Frank Ruta’s celebrated roast chicken is one of the main RW courses on this urbane Modern American’s $55 dinner menu. What makes his roasted bird special? Ruta credits the high-quality poultry he sources from carefully selected local growers. It’s organic and free-range. Most important, he says, it must be air-chilled and shipped dry – not soaked in water. He flavors the bird with a seasoning and spice blend he’s perfected over the years. Also on the RW menu, stuffed squid with avocado and ‘nduja vinaigrette is an intriguing starter. A milk ‘tea-a-misu’ or a crème fraiche panna cotta are offered as desserts.
Bistrot Lepic – RW diners can choose from a comprehensive roster of French bistro classics on this upper Georgetown eatery’s $40 dinner menu. First course choices include escargots, salmon rillettes and onion tart. Trout meuniere, salmon in a potato crust and beef medallions are entrée choices. Also offered are hard-to-find specialties like pied de cochon (crusty pig foot), veal kidneys and calf liver. Gallic favorites like apple tart, chocolate cake and ile flottante are offered for dessert.
Brasserie Liberté – This lively French brasserie kicks off its RW celebration on January 17 with a three-course, $25 brunch featuring a choice of eggs Benedict (with ham, salmon or spinach). During the week, a three-course lunch for $25 offers appetizer choices like escargots, followed by entrees ranging from avocado toast and gourmet sandwiches to indulgent burgers. Its RW dinner menu ($40) features main courses including coq au vin, loup de mer, mussels and steak. All RW menus include rich desserts like chocolate bread pudding or lemon crème pie.
Café Milano – A $25, three-course lunch is quite a deal at this storied Italian mecca – especially since the restaurant is offering the likes of grilled swordfish with olives, chicken stuffed with truffled greens and Angus beef steak as entrée choices. General Manager Laurent Menoud says that Restaurant Week traditionally “brings new business.” This year, he also hopes to welcome regulars ready to dine out again.
I Ricchi – “In Tuscany,” chef-owner Christianne Ricchi explains, “everyone has a pot of the hearty vegetable soup called ribollita on the back of the stove.” That hearty classic, along with the Italian restaurant’s popular calamari, pasta and risotto highlight the $55 RW dinner menu’s first course. Other best sellers like scampi, fried chicken, sausages with polenta and eggplant parmesan are main course choices, while cannoli and tiramisu highlight the list of desserts.
Rasika West End – This elegant modern Indian’s $55 RW menu offers a comprehensive range of its distinctive dishes. Appetizers include indulgent ingredients like smoked duck with foie gras or a truffle dosa, as well as a crab cake, a lamb kebob and its famed palak chaat. Main dishes feature salmon, lamb, chicken or a vegetable thali. Rich desserts range from jaggery rice, gulab jamun and date toffee pudding to pumpkin cheesecake.
Sushería – A complimentary pisco sour and miso soup add value to the $55 RW dinner at this vibrant Japanese-Peruvian. Starters feature signature dishes like a ceviche sampler and tuna tataki. Main course selections include lomo saltado, sea bass and fusion sushi rolls. Dessert is unabashedly rich and American – chocolate lava cake or cheesecake.
